Appalling rubbish heap pictured at Marconi Park, Enniscorthy on Friday last. Pic: John Walsh

THE POSSIBILITY of people suspected of illegal dumping offences having their photographs appear on public posters was an interesting suggestion made at a local authority meeting.

With the problem now reaching unprecedented proportions in Enniscorthy, a local public representative came up with the idea of exploring such a drastic measure in a bid to tackle the issue.

According to Cllr. Keith Doyle, not only is it a case of people putting their domestic rubbish in public litter bins on a weekly basis, but it has now reached the stage where it is the same people regularly filling the same bins, and all at the same locations.

He was speaking at the January meeting of Enniscorthy Municipal District body, where there was a full-blown debate on the matter.

Cllr. Doyle stated that if it was not legally possible to put a suspect’s photo on public display, perhaps it could be used in a ‘person of interest’ style, indicating that the authorities ‘wish to speak’ to the person in the photo (in connection with suspected illegal dumping).

Director of Services John Carley cited privacy laws meant that local authorities are not entitled to ‘name and shame’ suspected offenders. The only people who can do this is when a suspect is brought before a court of law and is convicted.

Cllr. Doyle asked that legal advice be sought on this whole issue. He suggested that if some acceptable form of poster could be done, it should.

“We have not done this before and the idea should be investigated,” he commented.

Full story in this week’s Echo.